Frank Rich's excellent column about "fear".
All's fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah
Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers,
even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if
Ayers's Weather Underground history dates back to
Obama's childhood, even if establishment
Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated
with the present-day Ayers in educational reform.
But it's not just the old Joe McCarthyesque
guilt-by-association game, however spurious,
that's going on here. Don't for an instant
believe the many mindlessly "even-handed"
journalists who keep saying that the McCain
campaign's use of Ayers is the moral or political
equivalent of the Obama campaign's hammering on Charles Keating.
What makes them different, and what has pumped up
the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is
the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially
(though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama
"launched his political career in the living room
of a domestic terrorist." He is "palling around
with terrorists" (note the plural noun). Obama is
"not a man who sees America the way you and I see
America." Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama
quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.
By the time McCain asks the crowd "Who is the
real Barack Obama?" it's no surprise that someone
cries out "Terrorist!" The rhetorical conflation
of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked
further by the repeated invocation of Obama's
middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and
Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at
once synchronizes with the poisonous
Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the
brand of terrorism from Ayers's Vietnam-era
variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.
That's a far cry from simply accusing Obama of
being a guilty-by-association radical leftist.
Obama is being branded as a potential killer and
an accessory to past attempts at murder. "Barack
Obama's friend tried to kill my family" was how a
McCain press release last week packaged the
remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 â when Obama was 8.
We all know what punishment fits the crime of
murder, or even potential murder, if the security
of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how
self-appointed "patriotic" martyrs always justify
taking the law into their own hands.
Obama can hardly be held accountable for Ayers's
behavior 40 years ago, but at least McCain and
Palin can try to take some responsibility for the
behavior of their own supporters in 2008. What's
troubling here is not only the candidates' loose
inflammatory talk but also their refusal to step
in promptly and strongly when someone responds to
it with bloodthirsty threats in a crowded arena.
Joe Biden had it exactly right when he expressed
concern last week that "a leading American
politician who might be vice president of the
United States would not just stop midsentence and
turn and condemn that." To stay silent is to pour gas on the fires.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12rich.html?hp>Link
--
Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2008/10/frank-rich-terrorist-barack-hussein.htm>monochrom
at 10/12/2008 08:29:00 PM
